These uncertain times

I've been putting off writing any blogs that are political in nature since I started this blog because I wanted to focus on my own experiences and not get sucked into writing reactionary pieces to what is going on in the world (well, North America to be specific). I shared thoughts and things that happened to me, and always from my particular poly perspective.

The US election came and went and I wrote nothing about it. The insidious rolling back of personal liberties and freedoms in the guise of religious freedoms started happening in the US and I wrote nothing about it. Blatant racism happened in my city and country, but I did not write about it. So many bloggers, vloggers, journalists, pundits, and anyone with internet access has weighed in with their opinion on the devolution of the American Way of Life and I have not.

But I don't think I can avoid writing non-politically in my blog anymore. Being Canadian, I'm afforded a comfortable distance from the madness of US politics right now. I get to make fun of how things are going down south, and get to share memes like this one:

This would be funny if we didn't also know that the fire will spread this way...

But the fire IS spreading north, and it has already reared its ugly head with the horrifying mosque shootings in Quebec earlier this year. And I'm worried that it's only going to get worse. For Canadians follow their neighbours to the south when it comes to the economy, film/tv, fashion, etc. We simply cannot afford to be complacent.

The demonization and disenfranchisement of any person who isn't white, Christian, straight, monogamous, and (usually) cis-male by Drumph (I refuse to use his real name) and his appointees is all but written into public policy now. Real world consequences are happening: from folks being refused entry into the States; to folks being denied access to healthcare originally promised by the former government; to the fact that Drumph sent a member of a hate-group to a UN meeting on preventing violence against women. You can't make this shit up!

To top it all off, Drumph wants to change the nature of last bastion of personal expressive freedom - he wants to censor the internet.

And it's already begun...

Yesterday, I saw lots of stories circulating from YouTube vloggers that I follow that their content was no longer able to be seen on YouTube. This is because YouTube now has a function that you have to decide if you want to use or not - a "restricted mode." The point of this mode is to protect children from seeing inappropriate content, something that I understand. However, what is troubling is that,

YouTube has put itself in charge of deciding what videos are objectionable or inappropriate. Now, it isn’t exactly clear how videos are flagged as mature or inappropriate; it could very well be based on flags reported by users or it could be a group of people within YouTube making such decisions.

(from this link)

I read in an online community that the flagging was happening automatically. So somewhere down the line, someone decided that LGBTQ2 topics should be "restricted" and hidden from the main search function in YouTube, a platform that millions of people connect to daily around the world. Which leads me to wonder, WHY is it that LGBTQ2 themes are considered not appropriate for children? Kids come in all shades of the rainbow too, and need to have places to gain awareness, information, support, and community and YouTube has been providing that for years. Sure, some content should be restricted, but this is YouTube, not XTube FFS!

This video brought this issue to the forefront:

Even my favourite bi vlogger wasn't immune:

YouTube - now with more bi-erasure. Article link here.

Oiy, this is a painful issue for sure. LGBTQ2 people have been working so hard for so long to gain a place in society, only now to have their existence called into question time and time again as "appropriate." It's 2017, and it's time to get real about why these things are happening. We need to put pressure on companies, corporations, and government to let them know that we are here, queer, and NOT going away. That we will stand up and have our voices heard, and that we will share information as freely as possible on the internet because it belongs to everyone, and everyone deserves respect and representation.